


Solstice Party

by lirin



Category: Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 07:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20635070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: When politicians hold parties, they invite people they'd rather not invite.





	Solstice Party

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ancslove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancslove/gifts).

The table was covered with flimsies and datapads, and Leia looked like she was doing her best to read four sources of information simultaneously. Han moved aside two more datapads that were sitting in the closest chair, and dragged the chair over near hers. "You know," he said, rubbing her shoulders, "when you first told me about your idea, I thought it was going to just be a fun party, nothing too big or complicated. With only people we actually wanted to invite."

Leia sighed. "I'm afraid this is part of what you signed up for when you married a politician."

"You mean, that all of my wife's friends are also politicians?"

"Not all," Leia corrected him quickly. Han raised an eyebrow, and even though she was facing away from him, she must have sensed it, because she amended her claim. "Well...most."

"But still, this is supposed to be a private party. The sort of party you just invite your friends to. So sure there's going to be a bunch of politicians there, but can't we limit it to politicians you're actually friends with?"

Leia sighed again. Han tried to convince himself that it was a sigh of contentment from the back rub, but it was tinged with too much frustration for him to really believe that. "Even for people who aren't politicians," she said, "the sort of parties you just invite your friends to are also the sort of thing that you invite people you don't want to offend to, and people you just want to make a deal with, and people who think they're your friend and even though they actually aren't you don't want to disillusion them, and I don't know how many other reasons."

"There are approximately three thousand, five hundred thirteen reasons for—"

"Quiet, Goldenrod!" Han snapped, making shooing motions at C-3PO until the droid got the picture and left the room. He turned back to Leia, rubbing her neck now. "When we originally discussed hosting a solstice party, you said we'd only have twenty or thirty guests. We're up over a hundred now, aren't we?"

Leia sighed again, and rearranged some of the flimsies. "Do you mind the increased size of the guest list in general, or are you just unhappy that I had to invite Borsk Fey'lya?"

"You didn't _have_—"

"You know how Bothans are. I invited everyone on the Inner Council except for him, do you think he'd forget the slight any time soon? And besides, now that there's going to be nearly a hundred guests, there will be plenty of other people for you to talk to. You probably won't even have to say hello to him."

"But what if I'd rather not be in the same room with him?"

"Well then, obviously we'd better just cancel the party," Leia said. "If you're so completely incapable of spending any time at all in the same room as a Bothan that I spend significant time in a council room with _every single day_, then I suppose we'd better just rescind all the invitations and tell people they'll have to make alternate plans for the solstice."

It was Han's turn to sigh. He leaned forward and dug his hands harder into the tight knots in Leia's shoulders. "I'm sorry, honey. It's going to be a great party, and I won't even talk to Fey'lya."

"I know," Leia said. "Now, since you've chased C-3PO away, would you like to make the seating charts that he was going to help me with, or would you like to go find him and tell him to come back?"

***

Borsk Fey'lya stepped out of his airspeeder and strode towards the banquet hall that Councilor Organa Solo had rented for her party. He had no illusions that it would be an enjoyable evening, but then Bothans were never particularly ones for parties, even parties held by people they actually liked. But despite his personal feelings about Organa Solo and her political allies, he felt sure that it would be a competently-held party. And perhaps he would be able to make strides on something politically, and thus get something accomplished out of this whole evening.

His fur rippled involuntarily at the warmth as he stepped through the door into the hall, and he forced it back to its normal smoothness, suppressing any indication of irritation that might be detected by the humans that made up the majority of the guests. This was no place to let his fur down, not among so many people who would jump at the chance to seize his position on the Inner Council. He must be on his guard every moment.

"Councilor Fey'lya, thank you for coming," Councilor Organa Solo said, hurrying up to him. Fey'lya observed her carefully. He had always struggled to read human body language, but so far as he could detect, she was not displaying any annoyance at his presence. But then, he wasn't expressing any visible annoyance at hers, either. "I'm gratified that you were able to find time in your schedule to grace us with your presence," she added.

"I wish I had had more advance notice," Fey'lya replied, "but I will always make time for my fellow councilors." He felt quite certain that the other members of the Inner Council had received invitations sooner than he had—and in fact, he nurtured quite a suspicion that he would not have been invited at all had he not overheard Mon Mothma and Gial Ackbar discussing their social plans for Coruscant's upcoming solstice, and made polite inquiries. With so many planets in the galaxy, each orbiting stars in different ways, it hardly seemed important to note the time that one specific planet's equator was in line with one specific sun, but then humans would take any opportunity for a party. "I hope you have given further thought to what I was saying this morning about the Yavin 9 situation," he continued.

"Oh, it wouldn't do to discuss Council business when everyone is trying to enjoy themselves," Organa Solo said breezily. "Yavin 9 can wait until after the solstice. Have you heard the jocimers?" She steered him towards the corner of the room, where a Bith quartet was playing quiet and wholly inoffensive music. "Have a seat if you like," she said. "Or there is dessert along the side wall. Oh, Councilor Mothma's just arrived! I must go greet her. If you will excuse me?"

Organa Solo rushed off without waiting for a reply: a tidily-made retreat. Frustratingly competent, actually. Sometimes Fey'lya wished his opponents were less skilled—but then the achievement when he did become Chief of State would be the less for the lesser challenge. And he would be Chief of State, someday. Fey'lya reiterated that promise to himself, staring moodily at the musicians. Humans and their parties. He would much rather be sitting at home, drinking kothtri and reading The Way. But it couldn't be helped. He would listen to the musicians, and he would seek out the promised desserts and see if any of them were to his tastes, and he would wait at least forty standard minutes before departing.

Standard minutes might be the same the galaxy over, but the next forty minutes were shaping up to be particularly long ones.

***

By the time Leia dragged herself through the front door of their apartment, it was nearly morning. No, she had to admit to herself, it _was_ morning. She collapsed into the stuffed chair that was closest to the door. "I thought that was a perfectly decent party," she said. "I made some good connections, and it looked like people had a good time."

"It wasn't nearly as stuffy as some politicians' parties we've been to," Han said. He leaned on the back of the chair and stroked her hair.

"Of course," Leia sniffed, leaning into the touch, "because I designed this party, and I'm not stuffy, and I'm good at parties."

"You're good at a lot of things," Han said. "You should go to bed, that chair's no good for sleeping in and you look like you're about to fall asleep any moment."

"I'm not going to fall asleep quite yet," Leia said.

"Then we should both go to bed anyway, and you can show me something else you're good at, that's even more fun than parties."

"And here I thought you thought that party was fun enough, once Fey'lya cleared out early and left us with just the guests we actually wanted to invite," Leia said, but all in all, she was inclined to agree that other things were more fun. Staying up until all hours of the morning was _not_ one of those things, but as long as she was still up, she saw no reason not to stay awake a little while longer. She followed Han to bed.


End file.
